The purpose of this patent application is to provide the snow skier, primarily when speeding downhill, with a pair of handlebars for his/her hands while in a tucked-in or semi-squatted position. In this tucked-in position, the skier becomes more aerodynamic than upright, thus achieving faster speeds, but having less control of the ski with little torque for turns, he/she having to rely solely on knee rotation for turning (as opposed to the hip rotation that is possible in the erect position). This invention provides the skier with a direct hand-control of the turning via a pair of uprightand-curved handles (i.e. "skigrips") that are attached to the ski (one per ski) in the position where the ordinary ski-bindings go; that is just slightly behind the mid-point of the ski length.
In this inventor's earlier mentioned application for Handles for Tucked-in Skiing, now abandoned, the skier was locked in position by his/her feet at the ordinary place of the ski-bindings, thus the proposed handles had to be positioned way up front in the ski. The result, on extensive testing, was that such handles added little real maneuverability of the ski over what the foot alone had since the pivoting or turning/torque point of the ski especially a long, downhill ski is near its center. The so placed front handles permitted great speeds when pulled up (by better skimming the snow), but reducing the turning ability of the ski when bearing down. Such front placed handles had obvious limitations in practical terms for the average skier and average ski slope where for safety, control is emphasized over speed. Those handles would thus be limited to ad-hoc chutes and very straight downhill courses under very restricted circumstances.
In contrast to the abandoned application, this application places a similar type of upright handlebar, not in the front of the ski, but in the very place where one would normally place one's foot: between the ski-bindings and locked in position (thus removably) by them. With the handlebars locked between the regular ski-bindings the skier now places his/her feet immediately behind the standard heel-piece of the bindings, this invention providing a pocket-shaped hold for the skier's boot-tip. In this way the skier's weight is all in the rear half of the ski, thus the front of the ski can better skim over the snow, and at the same time with the skier/leaning forward and grabbing the proposed handles the turning/torque point of the ski is kept at best possible point, that is, near its center.
Extensive review of earlier prior art has been shown in the mentioned application. Additional prior art that specifically relates to handlebar attachments for skis include: The Ski Steering Apparatus of G.L. Parkinson (U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,444) which connects the front of the skis together with a handlebar attchment with telescoping and pivoting provisions, which in no way approaches this invention. The R.P. Brown's Ski Apparatus (U.S. Pat. No. 2,564,420) that consists of a rigid, tiltable frame with handlebars that are attached to the front tip of the skis, and is, in no way similar to this invention either. K.A. Henson's Sloping-Terrain Vehicle (U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,495) consists of a pair of handles attached together and holding the skis together by way of an articulated bridge; this device of his in no way accomplishes the purpose and versatility of this invention either.